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08/22/2005 06:50:30 PM · #1 |
| I have so many photos in folders on my hard drive that I need to back them up. Should I copy them to CD's and if so how often? How many pictures can a CD hold? How bout a USB thumb drive or jump drive? I just need help. Thanks. |
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08/22/2005 06:57:03 PM · #2 |
Amazingly, about the easiest and cheapest way is to buy a large FireWire or USB II hard drive and copy them to that.
Otherwise, I back up my photos to CD-R after I copy them to a hard drive and before deleting from the camera's memory card -- I try to always have two copies of the file in existence.
Remember to keep your (true) backups in a remote location; having a bunch of CDs stacked up on top of your computer won't help if there's a fire or something. |
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08/22/2005 06:58:51 PM · #3 |
| Warning: While an external hard drive may be suitable for short-term backups, find something more durable for long-term. I've had so many of those things go bad on me, making data unretrievable, that I use them for little more than data shuffling now. |
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08/22/2005 07:00:21 PM · #4 |
| I would put them on a cd...cd's cost less than a jump drive. Not sure how many pictures a cd will hold....I guess it depends on how big your pictures are(pixels). |
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08/22/2005 07:02:24 PM · #5 |
| I bet the data on a bad hard drive is just as "recoverable" as that on optical media which goes bad -- which can be as soon as 2-5 years, not necessarily the 100 years predicted by accelerated-aging tests. The key is to keep making copies of your backups on whatever the current media of choice happens to be. |
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08/22/2005 07:06:10 PM · #6 |
I use Syncback Free Program SyncBack it copies my "C" drive to the "D" drive every Saturday morning. Then copies my "D" drive to my "E" Drive on Sunday morning. I also use //www.smugmug.com as an offsite backup for my photos. I try to burn everything onto a few DVR's once a month then take them to work. That way they are offsite as well.
//www.jstantonjr.smugmug.com
Message edited by author 2005-08-22 19:07:03. |
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08/22/2005 07:55:37 PM · #7 |
In terms of data backup, you can guarantee one thing:
Every Hard Disk EVER made is guaranteed to fail AT ANY TIME.
A bit cynical you may say, but completely true. A hard disk will turn at between 4000 and 7000 times per minute. Think about that. Moving parts. Motors. A very small pin-head things sitting nanometres above a fragile surface. Destined to fail. Especially if you have a laptop drive, or move your hard disk around alot.
Now, Optical Media, (CD/DVD/Blu-ray very soon), has NO MOVING PARTS. As long as you buy quality media, and store the disks correctly, your data will remain for years to come. And, as Paul said:
"The key is to keep making copies of your backups on whatever the current media of choice happens to be."
Message edited by author 2005-08-22 19:56:39. |
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08/22/2005 08:02:38 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
I bet the data on a bad hard drive is just as "recoverable" as that on optical media which goes bad -- which can be as soon as 2-5 years, not necessarily the 100 years predicted by accelerated-aging tests. |
Possibly, but over the last five years, I've had 7 external drives fail (five Maxtors and two LaCies). I have yet to lose data off of a single CD-R or DVD+RW. My old PhaseCDs finally died, but I moved the data off of them years ago, and I doubt most people even remember them.
Originally posted by GeneralE:
The key is to keep making copies of your backups on whatever the current media of choice happens to be. |
True enough... assuming the current media of choice lasts that long. I was averaging a survival time of less than six months on the external disks (though granted I was pushing them hard every night). To me, the key is lots and lots of replication. I currently have my photos backed up to a 4-disk RAID5 array (allowing for drive failure) *and* onto DVD+RWs. I keep meaning to dump off an extra set and mail it to my parents on the other side of the country, but I never get around to it (downside to burning: it does take forever and use up a chunk of space).
Message edited by author 2005-08-22 20:02:59. |
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08/22/2005 08:21:23 PM · #9 |
I use an external USB drive and SyncToy (free app from Microsoft, of all companies...)
"Dubbed SyncToy, the new tool relies on a simple wizard-style interface to walk users through the copying process. It will copy files from one folder to another, keep both folders in sync, and automatically delete files in one folder when they've been erased in another."
Nice interface too.
Good for keeping multiple versions / copies of files in synch across laptops, PCs, external hard drives etc.
Download SyncToy here |
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08/22/2005 08:24:28 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by Zed Pobre:
Originally posted by GeneralE:
I bet the data on a bad hard drive is just as "recoverable" as that on optical media which goes bad -- which can be as soon as 2-5 years, not necessarily the 100 years predicted by accelerated-aging tests. |
Possibly, but over the last five years, I've had 7 external drives fail (five Maxtors and two LaCies). I have yet to lose data off of a single CD-R or DVD+RW. My old PhaseCDs finally died, but I moved the data off of them years ago, and I doubt most people even remember them.
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You've had remarkably bad luck with your hard drives. I still have lying around Magneto-Optical disks, SyQuests of various sizes, stacks of Zip cartridges and some Jaz disks, and someplace perhaps even a Bernoulli disk or two ... some of it I can even get data off of : ) |
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08/22/2005 08:48:05 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
You've had remarkably bad luck with your hard drives. I still have lying around Magneto-Optical disks, SyQuests of various sizes, stacks of Zip cartridges and some Jaz disks, and someplace perhaps even a Bernoulli disk or two ... some of it I can even get data off of : ) |
I think storage media with moving parts hate me, though I actually did have a batch of MO disks degrade on me as well after half a decade or so (can't really begrudge them that, though). I never had a Zip disk fail on me... but after replacing the Zip *drive* twice, I gave up on that format completely.
Annoyingly, I actually lost a batch of data recently when the *backplane* in one of my servers went out, and since I don't have any other RAID controllers of the same type on hand, I now have four disks with (as far as I know) mostly intact data, but no way to read them. !@#$ proprietary algorithms. I knew I should have gone JBOD+software RAID. Fortunately, I got a warning before it failed completely, and I managed to get all of the critical stuff off.
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